Trump, GOP candidates call for more surveillance

The Republican presidential candidates served notice Sunday that terrorism will be a major part of their 2016 campaigns, calling for more surveillance powers and criticizing President Obama's efforts to roll back the so-called Islamic State militant group.

Hours before Obama delivers a prime time address on counter-terrorism, the GOP candidates said Wednesday's mass shooting in California underscores the need for more investigative tools. They also criticized Obama for declining to use the term "radical Islamic terrorism" to describe the threat.

"We are having a tremendous problem with radical Islamic terrorism," GOP frontrunner Donald Trump said on CBS' Face The Nation, adding that "we have a president that won't issue the term."

The New York businessman said the nation needs more "vigilance," which could include profiling of Muslims who may be tempted by extremism.  "You have people that have to be tracked," Trump said.  "If they're Muslims, they're Muslims.  But you have people that have to be tracked."

Trump later announce he would be live-tweeting the president's address.

Republicans also debated among themselves over how to best confront terrorism.

Republicans said some of Trump's proposals, such a possible database of Muslims or going after the families of suspected terrorists, raise privacy and civil rights concerns, and the focus should be on improved intelligence gathering on possible terrorists.

"We don't need to be profiling in order to be able to get the job done here," said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., on CBS' Face The Nation, and a better approach is "increased surveillance, (and) creating relationships with mosques in the Muslim American community across the country."

Stressing his past experience as a U.S. attorney, Christie said, "we did that after 9/11 and prevented attacks in New Jersey and all across the country."

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., also called for expanded intelligence gathering capabilities that he said have eroded under the Obama administration. He also called for formation of local ground forces to combat the Islamic State in territory it holds in Syria and Iraq.

"Airstrikes alone aren't going to do it," he said, referring to current U.S. strategy. "Certainly not the limited airstrikes that are happening now."

The Wednesday mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., "is not going to be the last attempt to attack the homeland," Rubio said.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, speaking on ABC's This Week, said that "the first impulse" of Obama and 2016 Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton after a terrorist attack is to talk about gun control.

"My first impulse is to take ISIS out," Bush said, using another acronym for the Islamic State.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, appearing on Fox News Sunday, called for a "better job of monitoring the Internet."

Obama is scheduled to address the nation Sunday night on the California shootings and the threat of terrorism, the White House said in a statement, and plans to discuss "the steps our government is taking to fulfill his highest priority: keeping the American people safe."

The White House said Obama will repeat his pledge to destroy the Islamic State, and that "the United States must draw upon our values -- our unwavering commitment to justice, equality and freedom -- to prevail over terrorist groups that use violence to advance a destructive ideology."

Obama has said his Republican critics are either proposing things that are already being done, or are blocking gun control, including a proposal last week to ban gun sales for people who are on the no-fly list because of suspicious behavior.

"Right now, people on the no-fly list can walk into a store and buy a gun," Obama said in his Saturday radio address. "That is insane.  If you’re too dangerous to board a plane, you’re too dangerous, by definition, to buy a gun."

Asked about his opposition to closing that loophole, Rubio said too many people are on the no-fly list by mistake.

"If these were perfect lists, that would be one thing," Rubio said. "But there are over 700,000 Americans on some watch list or another that would all be captured under this amendment the Democrats offered. And that's the problem."

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, on CNN's State of the Union, differed in saying that "of course, it makes common sense to say that, if you're on a terrorist watch list, you shouldn't be able to go out and get a gun -- although you will be able to get it illegally.”